


A Thicket in the Woods

by Blueroseflower



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Aerith is a nymph, Author Is Sleep Deprived, M/M, Will add more characters as I go - Freeform, fae genesis, jenova isn't fully evil, only like eighty percent evil, sorry - Freeform, werewolf sephiroth, witch cloud
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-25 02:51:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16652887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueroseflower/pseuds/Blueroseflower
Summary: Sephiroth is a werewolf, wounded and sick wandering far from home with angry hunters on his tail. Enter Cloud Strife who finds an annoying naked man passed out on the doorstep of his cottage.





	A Thicket in the Woods

Chapter 1

Sephiroth

  
  


For a long time ‘he’ had been the dark secret. The cursed heir to the Crescent family. Dr Hojo’s only son or so he was told, if there had been others Lucrecia had given birth to, she had surely lost them in childbirth. Sephiroth had been born in much the same way,  _ stillborn _ his nanny had once called him. Everytime he looked in the mirror it was just another reminder that he was different, his hair was not a natural colour, like red or brown, it was silver like the moon. 

 

It was impossible not to hear them. The rumors servants gossiped about when they thought he wasn’t paying attention to them.  One nursery maid had even thought he was a changeling because of his abnormally sharp teeth. Even the cook, who had served here since his mother was a little girl swears that Sephiroth had been stillborn. Others thought that his mother must have had an affair with a fairie after she married his father, but the Town’s people would be wrong on all accounts. On the night Sephiroth was born, when his hair had still been its original shade of brown. His father had bundled the sickly child up in his white lab coat and left him at the edge of the forest. 

 

The forest was a thicket of trees that surrounded the town on all sides: where people said a bloodthirsty creature lived in hiding. In the hopes of getting the creature to leave the town alone people often left offerings in front of the thicket. A healthy calf or a fat piglet was what the creature seemed to most preferred. Maybe that’s what he had been, all he had been to his parents. But as fate would have it, the ill babe had not been devoured that night and instead was returned home healthy, wrapped in a wolf’s pelt with hair as silver as the moon. Even with the strange hair Lucrecia had recognized her baby and wept with joy that night.

 

Sephiroth was ten years old when she first began speaking to him, his nanny had just tucked him into bed and offered to leave the candle on the nightstand burning but he’d declined because Hojo had already punished him for using a nightlight once before. At first her voice was just a soft whispering in the wind before it turned into howling coming from outside his bedroom window, calling to him. The next morning he wakes up naked and covered in blood, a half eaten animal laying beside him. Sephiroth nearly gives the poor cook a heart attack when he showed up on the doorstep like that. He’s fairly certain that's the reason why she resigned later that month. 

 

At twelve years old Sephiroth learned to block out her voice in favor of concentrating on lessons with his father. If there is one thing she can’t stand, it is being ignored. Her voice is louder now and more persistent, his father's science lecture is drowned out by her yelling. 

 

“Be quiet.” Sephiroth doesn’t realise he’s said the words out loud until his father addresses him from across the room.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

***

 

**_Jenova._ **

 

He’s so startled he almost falls off the chair he’d been sitting on. His parents give him a strange look from across the dining table but don’t comment. Suddenly he’s lost his appetite.

 

“May I be excused?”

 

Hojo looks like he wants to say something but his wife holds up a hand to silence him. After all she was still considered, head of the household.

 

“You may.”

 

He doesn’t waste any time fleeing from the dining room.  Once he’s in the relative safety of his room he practically melts into a puddle on the floor

 

**_Jenova._ **

 

“What?”

 

**_My name._ **

 

“Oh,” 

 

_ She has a name, that’s surprising. _

 

**_I can hear you._ **

 

“But I wasn’t speaking.”

 

**_Your thoughts. I can hear them. Speak in your head, child. That way the mortals need not be concerned for your psyche._ **

 

_ Really? Like this? _

 

**_Yes. Our shared blood allows us to communicate like this._ **

 

_ Shared Blood? Are we related?  _

 

**_Not by mortal standards, but you are my kin._ **

 

_ How so? _

 

He might have been ticking her off with all the questions but he didn’t care.

 

**_Do you think I would lie to you, child?_ **

 

_ Yes. _

 

She laughed with amusement.

 

**_Perhaps that is a wise decision however someday you may have no choice but to believe me._ **

 

_ What are you implying?  _

 

**_I’m not implying anything, child. I’m_ ** **_warning_ ** **_._ **

 

She wouldn’t speak to him anymore that night.

 

***

Not matter how much food he ate Sephiroth never seemed to be full. He was wearing the new cook out just as fast as the old one. It all came to head when he heard the poor woman sobbing in the kitchen.

 

“I can’t! That boy’s eaten nearly everything in all my cupboards!” 

 

The scullery maid patted the cook’s back comfortingly. “Its okay Ms Pots, I can ask chip to make a run into town for groceries,”

 

“But it will all be gone by the morning anyway! It's no use!” 

  
  


Sephiroth didn’t take food from the kitchens anymore. 

  
  


A week later he laid awake in bed pangs of hunger gnawing at his stomach. He’d eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner but the ache never fully ceased. 

**_You are hungry_ **

 

It wasn’t a question.

_ What of it? _

 

**_Why do you not eat?_ **

 

_ Because nothing ever seems to satisfy my stomach.  _

 

**_So the dying man should not drink the water he has because it will not satisfy him fully?_ **

 

_ I’m not dying.  _

 

**_Not yet._ **

 

_ … _

 

_ I don’t suppose you have any suggestions…? _

  
  


**_Are you asking for my help?_ **

  
  


_ No…  _

  
  


**_Then we have nothing to discuss._ **

  
  


_ So,  if you were in this situation, what would you do? _

  
  


**_I thought you weren’t asking for help._ **

  
  


_ I’m not. I’m asking for your opinion.  _

  
  


**_A wolf dressed in wool doesn’t become a sheep, but they would rather believe it one of them, than face the truth._ **

 

In other words, a lie dressed up as a truth was still a lie.

  
  


_ I’m too tired to debate with you. Just tell me where to get the food. _

  
  


**_Very well._ **

She had led him deep into the forest.

  
  


**_This glade is where you will find the best game._ **

  
  


_ I should have known you’d want me to kill some poor animal.  _

  
  


**_Did you not have lamb for dinner today?_ **

  
  


_ Well, yes but I didn’t kill it. _

  
  


**_But you ate it._ **

  
  


He didn’t like where this conversation was going.

  
  


_ It doesn’t matter if you want me to hunt. I have no weapons. _

  
  


**_You do not need tools forged of fire and steel._ **

  
  


_ I don’t know how you expect me to hunt without- _

  
  


Then it happened. Sephiroth doubled over in pain, he felt his bones snap, stretching out to unnatural lengths pulling and cracking before settling back into an unnatural position. It was agony, he would have screamed but the sound couldn’t seem to make it past his elongated snout. His caines had shot down over his bottom lip, he tasted copper in his mouth.

  
  


**_You are a weapon. Don’t forget that._ **

  
  


It was kind of like watching the world through someone else's eyes. Except they were his eyes, and he could feel everything more intensely. Sephiroth wasn’t himself anymore, he was lead purely by instinct. What do wolves do when they’re hungry? They hunt.

 

_ You fooled to me.  _

  
  


**_No, the only person who fooled you, was yourself._ **


End file.
